Love, War, and Veelas
by Phantom's Pianist
Summary: EDITED VERSION: Voldemort recognizes his mate when she was just two years old. He tries to claim her, but encounters many problems. Hermione wont accept him, the Malfoy boy wont stop flirting with her, and the boy-who-lived still wont die! Will the dark lord be able to hold on to his mate, or will she slip from his grasp? Veela!Voldemort Mate!Hermione. Voldemort OOC
1. Chapter 1

**Love, War, and Veelas**

A/N: This story was edited **with permission **from the original story by forbbidenfruite. Please read that one first, as they are the original creator. Disclaimer: neither of us own Harry Potter. Thank you!

* * *

The sun painted the woods a golden hue. In the peaceful land of gold, a tall, skinny man paused from his walk, lost in thought. Tom Riddle Jr. had many things on his mind; his play for world domination, methods of recruitment, and his nameless mate. Unknown to most, Tom was one-forth veela. His father had been half veela, and the gene was passed on to Tom. However, for the fifty-three years he had been alive, Tom had not found his mate. Originally, he only looked at pureblood women within his same age group, but he was now looking at any female, even children. He knew an age reduction potion he could use to become any age the girl needed. However, to know what age he needed to be meant finding her, and fast, because muggles and mudbloods were being killed. If she was one of them (which Tom was horrified to even consider), she could easily be killed with the others, thus leaving him to die as well.

He sighed and continued walking. He desperately wished his world domination to be complete, and for the war to be over. The more they fought, the more soldiers they needed, and the cockier, dumber, and younger his followers got. Lucius Malfoy was already breeding his son to be a follower, which meant sending another young, naïve soldier to war. Tom rolled his eyes at the thought of the new generation of Death Eaters. He needed strong brave soldiers, not children.

He continued to walk for some time before coming upon a meadow. It was beautiful with purple and yellow wild flowers every where, and perfectly grass. A perfect spot to rest. The dark lord sat down in the soft grass and watched the drifting purple clouds over head. He listened to the sounds of the birds the woods as crickets a few crickets began to chirp. He always seemed to lose track of time when he was alone, for it was very rare. His thoughts were switching from veela mates to young warriors to his rising, completely lost in his own world.

"Swad?" a bell like voice asked, breaking the man from his thoughts. In front of him stood a brown-haired little girl who looked to be no more than two years old. As soon as his eyes met hers, he knew who she was. She was his mate.

"No, I'm not sad. What are you doing out here so late?" he asked cautiously. He was trying not to frighten the lovely little child. She was small, even for a two-year-old, only standing about two feet, with big brown eyes and skin the color of melted vanilla ice cream on a hot summer's day. She had a large amount of very curly hair, the color of a tree trunk, and brown eyes so sweet and dark, they could rival a rich brownie. In Tom's eyes, she was perfect.

"Mum." the little girl said, pointing towards the houses that stood at the other edge of the small meadow, opposite from the woods. He didn't understand exactly how 'mum' explained everything, but he played along. Though, the word did get him thinking. The girl was much too far from any of the houses. A little girl out here could easily get hurt. How could her parents even allow her to come outside at such an hour?! He growled softly at the thought of the horrors the girl could have run into if she had not seen him.

Realizing this, he took the little girl to where the fences started, where he assumed her house was.

"Hermione?" a frantic, female voice yelled from a cozy yellow house, just two houses down from where they stood.

"Mum!" the little girl called back, struggling to get out of the strange man's arms. Reluctantly, he let her go, watching from afar as her mother scooped her up in her arms and took her back inside. He smiled widely knowing that he had finally found his mate.

His Hermione.


	2. Chapter 2

Tom had not been able to go back to his mansion. No matter how many times he tried to leave, his instincts told him to stay near his darling little mate, whose parents, in Tom's opinion, weren't competent enough to look after the girl. From behind a small bush in the family's backyard, He had watched the family as they went about their business, eating dinner, playing a game together, and watching an evening cartoon. As he watched, he got more and more nervous. Hermione was too curious for her own health. He was close to having a heart attack when she almost managed to pull a flower pot down trying to see what was inside of it. He had thought the pot would smash on to her small head and for the first time in his life, Tom was actually terrified. As he saw the pot starting to lean over, he was about to break into the house and save her, parents or no parents, but Hermione's mom came to the rescue in his place and stopped her from tipping it over.

When Hermione was finally tucked into her bed, Tom breathed a sigh of relief. _How much trouble could a she get into when she was tucked safely in her bed?_ he thought. Making sure he was focusing on this, he found himself finally able to leave her side, at least for the moment. He was just about to leave when it started to storm. The thunder and lightening roared and flashed, lighting up the room with its terrible power. He personally loved the storms. He was planning to go home and watch it from the safety of his home, but suddenly, he heard a small cry come from his mate's room. He waited for her parents to come in, but they didn't.

"Stupid muggles." he growled under his breath as he unlocked the door leading into the house. He could not deny his mate the comfort her parents were not giving her. She was his mate, his first priority; he had to make sure that she was happy and safe before leaving her side. He crept quietly through the dark hallway towards the sound of his crying mate. Opening the last door in the hallway he found a soft yellow room with many toys, a little white side table, and a white bed covered in a red blanket and gold-colored pillows. Her bed was much to large for such a small girl, and it almost seemed to surround her with comfort. This didn't concern Tom, however, as he walked over to Hermione, and looked down at his small, beautiful mate. What he saw broke his heart. Her big brown eyes were filled with tears and her face was red from crying.

After a few moments, Hermione noticed that a stranger was in her room, and looked up at him. "You..." she mumbled, looking up at him while she sniffled.

"Hush, child. There is nothing to fear. I will protect you." he said with a fierce, but gentle determination, sitting down on her bed and stroked her face soothingly.

"Who awe you?" she asked nervously staring at the man in front of her with her large, chocolate eyes.

"I'm your best friend." he said with a smile, though he knew they were destined to be so much more.

"Oh. What's your name?"

"Tom Riddle."

"I'm Hermione."

"Yes, I know. Now go to sleep, I will protect you.''

"Mmmm," the girl yawned before snuggling under the covers. "Night night Tommy." she said softly before falling asleep again.

The Dark Lord chuckled while stroking his mate's hair. It was the first time anyone had called him 'Tommy' and lived. He continued watching his young mate sleep, lost in her beauty, until he was roused from his surveillance of his beautiful mate by Bellatrix Le'Strange knocking on the window. To make sure his followers were following his orders, he had tracking devices put into each wand. His was the only one that could be turned on or off by will. When he was in the forest, he had turned it on in case he was attacked.

Without looking away from his mate, Voldemort quietly growled, "this had better be good Bellatrix Le'Strange."

Bellatrix was very much frightened by The Dark Lord's tone, but she knew he'd be happier when she told him the news. "My lord, it is time to go. Tonight we put our plan into action!" the sadistic witch giggled happily.

Tom sighed and nodded. "Fine, just make sure everyone knows not to touch this house." he said. He kissed his mate's head one more time before he left to kill.


	3. Chapter 3

To say that Tom Riddle was furious was the understatement of the century. What had happened? The little runt should have died! How could one mere girl stop his victory? How? _HOW_? **HOW!?** What made that toddler so special? The thought of "a mother's love conquering all," popped into his head, but it was so stupid and foolish, he thought he was going to be ill. No, it wasn't love. It had to be something else. But what!? Before he had the time to look at the dark haired child any closer, he heard several pops of many people apparating into the house. The old man and his gang of idiots had arrived. Quickly, he apparted out of the house and into his angel's beautiful back yard.

Before, Tom had been so entranced by his mate at their first meeting that he had not cared to notice the beauty of the yard, as he thought it was nothing compared to his angel. The yard was gorgeous with many different flowers everywhere, nestled amongst fresh green grass, and a wooden swing hanging from a medium-sized willow tree. A small, winding stone path in the middle of the grass led up to a house, and led to his mate. Tom, for the second time that night, snuck into the Granger household, desperately needing to calm the raging anger inside of him. He crept quietly up the stairs careful to disturb no one. If Hermione's parents caught him going into this house, they would scream and yell and wake Hermione up, an idea which only added to the veela's fury.

Tom walked into the small room, eager to relax by having his precious mate by his side, only to find the disgusting blood traitor, Sirius Black, lifting his mate out of her bed. How dare that…that _thing _touch what was his? How dare he even consider _looking_ at his mate? _His_ mate! His fury increased ten fold, filling every cell in his body with a horrifying rage only known to veelas. "Put her down. Now." Tom growled slowly, emphasizing each word. If he were not afraid to hit Hermione, he would have immediately killed the filth right then and there. However, Sirius black just held on tighter to the small, sleeping child in his arms.

When Severus had overheard Bellatrix say that the dark lord had found his mate, The Order knew that they had to retrieve the girl in order to keep her out of the clutches of the most evil man known to wizardry. Quickly, Sirius raised his wand, while still having a firm grasp on the little girl, and before Tom could do anything he apparated to the burrow.

Molly Weasly was the best mother The Order knew, and they knew that the girl would adjust wonderfully under her watchful eye. The red headed woman was waiting at the door with the rest of her family when the brown haired wizard appeared outside the wards. "Let me see her!" Molly Weasly cried excitedly, as she rushed towards the taller wizard. Carefully, Sirius passed Molly the small, slumbering girl. "Oh my! Arthur look how pretty she is! She looks like a little doll!" the red headed woman said to her husband, holding little Hermione on her hip as only a mother knows how to do.

"She is very pretty, Love." The man said, smiling down at the girl.

"Kids, come meet your new sister!" Molly said quietly, turning to her children, who had all come behind their mother to see the new addition to the family.

"Why is she so tiny?" Fred and George asked at the same time.

"Because she hasn't grown up yet." Their father said. Ron just stared at the girl in his mother's arms. She looked like one of the dolls that lined Ginny's room, except her hair was far more curly.

Sirius, feeling awkward at looking on a private family moment, mumbled a simple, "well, I will leave you to it," walked outside the wards, and diapperated. The Weasley family walked back into the burrow, happy to have a new addition to the family.

**The Malfoy Mansion:**

"What do you mean they took her?" Lucius Malfoy asked cautiously as he watched Voldemort pace back and forth, afraid to further enrage his master and join the others who had been tortured and eventually killed that night from his rage.

"Sirius Black, that vile creature, just picked her up and diapperated. I want her found Lucius. I don't care what you have to do. Kill anyone you come across until you find her. I want her back!" Tom snapped. Lucious, taking the excuse to leave, hurried out of the dining room, thoroughly relieved that he had avoided a close call with death. Tom looked out the window, trying to hide his worry. He didn't care who died as long as he got her back.

He only cared about her_._


	4. Chapter 4

A 6-year-old Hermione hid behind a large bush, waiting for her brother to find her. Their parents had decided to bring the children to the park, both for the children to have some fun, and so Arthur could see some muggle contraptions in action. As the children played hide-and-go-seek, Arthur had struck up a conversation about cars with a rather large and fat man on a bench near the parking lot. A young, black-haired boy about Hermione's age stood next to the swings looking at the ground as if it were the most interesting thing in the world. While hiding, Hermione looked around at the park, observing the muggle playground for a while before her eyes landed on the small boy. He seemed sad and lonely. She saw how none of the other children would play with him, and when he tried to play with a boy who looked a lot like the large man, the boy was roughly pushed away. Hermione forgot about the game she and her brothers were playing and got out of her hiding place. She walked over to the little boy with determination on her face. she was going to make this boy smile if it was the last thing she did.

"Hello, I'm Hermione Weasley." Hermione said holding her hand out to the startled boy. He looked like a mess with essy black hair, not terrbily clean clothes, and a very tired expression.

The boy looked up at her in shock. No one had ever really come up to him at the park. Everyone knew that if they did talk to him Dudley would bully him and Uncle Vernon always told the children's parents how horrid he was. "I-I'm Harry...Harry Potter." he said hesitantly.

"Would you like to be my friend Harry?" Hermione asked, eyes shining at the idea of a new friend.

"S-sure." Harry stuttered no sure if this wa a trick or not. The girl seemed so nice though that he wanted desperatly for her not to be tricking him.

"Come on!" Hermione said with a squeal as she grabbed the boy's tiny wrsit and dragging him to the near by benches.

"Mum! Mum!" Hermione said as she ran towards her mother, Harry doing his best to keep up with the little ball of energy. They stopped in front of a plump red haired woman who was sitting with a little girl on a bench as she knitted. It was such a motherly seeming woman that it made Harry's heat ache.

"Mum! This is my new friend Harry Potter!" Hermione squealed happily. Her mother was always so pleased when she made new friends.

Molly froze. Harry Potter? Her daughter had managed to find Harry Potter? Molly calmed herself and smile sweetly at the duo. "Hello Harry I'm molly Weasley. How are you?" She tried to focus on talking calmly, but all she could think of how much he looked like his parents.

"Fine, thank you." Harry said shyly, nervous under the red head's gaze.

Molly opened her mouth to say something when she was caught off by her youngest son's yelling. "HERMIONE! HAERMIONE, WHERE ARE YOU? THIS ISN'T FUNNY! WHERE ARE YOU?" Roanld Weasley yelled.

"Ronald, I am right here." Hermione huffed at her brother whose face was turning red from a mix of anger and embaressment.

"You can't just run off, Mione. It's not safe and...whose he?" Ron asked getting distracted by the boy his sister was still holding the wrist of.

"This is Harry Potter. He's my new friend." Hermione said with a smile. She had gotten a friend at the park before her brother and thus Harry was more her friend than his.

Ron eyes the boy not sure what to make of him. He seemed okay enough, but it was too soon to tell. "Mum, I'm hungry." Ron said deciding to make his judgment of the black haired boy later. The three sat down on the blanket to eat, Harry rather hesitantly, not knowing that this was the first meeting of the golden trio.

While the children ate a ghost watched from a safe distance. Just one more hour and Tom could have his body and his mate back. He had figure out a way to get his body back and look younger in order to be closer to his mate. He had waited so long to get her back and finally he could be able to hold her and protect her again. He couls also get her away from Potter. He could not have her gettting attached to the boyhe needed to kill. Well, he really did not want her to get attached to any boy at all, all of the male population was a threate to him.

He felt the warmth he had not felt in years wash over him as turned back into a living thing. "My lord." Bellatrix said with a smile, handing him his wand. He waited unti the children spilt up while playing another game of hide-and-seek. He shot a sleeping spell at his mate before picking her up and apparting. finally she was back where she belonged.


	5. Chapter 5

A week later, a large, white yacht sailed upon a beautiful lake. The lake was overflowing with floating lily pads and flowers as far as the eye could see. The lake was called "Flora's Lake," after the legend that went along with it. It was said that long ago, a woman named Flora lived in a little cottage next to the glassy lake. She adored flowers of all kinds, and tended to the different kinds throughout the day. In the morning she would water her roses, in the afternoon she would water her lilies, in the evenings she would water her blue-belles, and at night she would water her London Prides. Soon, a man named Augustus, seeing her caring and kind nature, fell deeply in love with the woman. After a few months, they confessed their love for each other, and were married. For years they lived happily and peacefully for many years. They lived and grew old together in that old cottage, never leaving each other's sides, right up to Flora's very last days.

All too soon, however, Flora's time on the planet ended. After her death, Augustus could no longer look at Flora's flowers without becoming horribly saddened by the thought of her. Devastated by grief, Augustus took all of her flowers to the nearby lake, and threw them all into the lake, thinking he had killed the memory of his beloved Flora. When he came back to the lake a few days later, however, he found that not only were the flowers he threw in still alive, but more flowers had appeared around them. Over his lifetime, he found that every year, on their wedding anniversary more flowers would show up in the lake. Now, hundreds of years later, the flowers covered the lake and spread throughout the surrounding land.

The large yacht that floated amongst this expanse of flowers held three children playing under a white canopy, and five adults standing in the sun. While Hermione, Draco, and Pansy were playing, the adults, Tom, Lucius and Narcissa, Rose, and Michael, discussed plans, strategies, and tactics to recruit more followers. In order to amuse Hermione, Tom had had his most trusted death eaters bring their children to the meeting to entertain Hermione. He figured it would be a good treat after the fiasco that had happened a few days before.

When Hermione had first come with him, she would not stop crying for her parents. Tom desperately tried to sooth his mate, but was unsuccessful. Desperately, he had given her to Dolores Umbridge to try and cheer her up. Hermione looked up in curiosity at the newcomer, not knowing what to think of her. Having finally stopped her crying, Tom left for a crucial meeting with his followers. However, Dolores only made matters worse. When Tom had left, Dolores used one of her torture-quills to force Hermione to stop crying. Dolores forced Hermione to write "I will not cry" fifty times. After Hermione had written it about four times, Tom felt his mate's pain and rushed to where he left her. When Tom had seen his mate's hand, it had taken all Tom had not to kill the insolent women. "Listen closely you psychotic pig," The dark lord whispered in a deadly tone, "I have spared you this time because my mate is present, but do anything like this to my Hermione again, and you will wish I had killed you. Understand?" Nodding hurriedly, Dolores sprinted out the door after The Dark Lord let her down. After he had dealt with the swine, he turned to his precious only to find her in tears again.

Shaking his head, Tom pulled his mind back into reality and attempted to listen to the discussion. Remembering that planning his conquest ahead was crucial to both his and Hermione's lives, he immersed himself fully in the conversation they had been having.

Farther away from the adults, though, the children were talking about something very different. "This is my doll Holly." Pansy Parkinson announced, showing off the black-haired, glass doll to Hermione and Draco. Draco Malfoy looked at the doll with disgust. The thing, Holly it was called, looked almost exactly like Pansy, right down to the matching barf-yellow sundresses. _She'd better not have a doll that looks like me_, Draco thought. _She'll probably have the two dolls marry _Draco shuddered. Even in doll form, that marriage would be gross.

"And these are my other dolls, Daniel and Prissy. Daniel and Holly are married and Prissy is there baby." Pansy said proudly. Surprisingly enough, the male doll had pale blond hair with gray eyes, and was wearing a prince outfit. Draco was going to be sick. _This girl is seriously insane_, he though. The little doll, "Prissy", had pale blonde hair and gray eyes with "Holly's" facial features. Unable to continue looking at the things, Draco picked up "Holly" off of floor while no one was looking. He dashed over to the side of the boat and dropped it into the lake.

Pansy wanted to show Hermione how Holly's hair magically grew, but looked down to find the doll missing. She looked around to see Draco by the side of the boat. She walked over to Draco to ask him oh so nicely if he had seen her doll. When she saw it in the lake, she was so angry, she pushed the young boy off the side of the boat.

"You jerk!" Pansy yelled at the pale haired boy who was now in the water. As soon as Draco surfaced he started screaming and crying, thinking that he was going to drown. As soon as he started yelling all the adults came rushing over to see what the trouble was.

"Hermione! Are you okay? Did you get hurt?" Tom asked the young girl looking her over to see if she was ok.

"I'm not hurt, Tommy." Hermione said shyly, scared by the man's intensity. Tom sighed in relief as he picked his little mate up.

"What happened? Why was Draco in the lake?" Narcissa asked the children after she had levitated Draco out of the water and magically dried him off.

"He dropped my doll Holly into the lake on purpose!" Pansy screamed as her parents came over to soothe her.

"Did not!" Draco lied, trying to stay out of trouble.

"Did so!" Pansy countered.

"Did not!"

"Did so!"

"DID NOT!"

"DID SO!"

"Why don't we get you some lunch, little one?" Tom cooed to Hermione, tired of hearing the babbling brats. He walked away with her and down into the cabin beneath the deck they had been standing on. Silently, the adults and children followed him. The deck below was very lavishly decorated, with light wooden floors beneath a large rectangular table able to fit 20 people at a time. Beautiful red plush chairs surrounded the table, and a great chandelier hanging above it reflected all the natural light pouring through the large, glass windows, making it the room sparkle gorgeously.

They walked into the large deck below, and picked took their places around the table. The elves had put out silver plates piled with various fruits, grilled sandwiches, and chips shaped like the old man, the boy, and the pot from _The Wizard and the Hopping Pot_ for the children. The elves had also laid out several drink choices, including a pitcher of lemonade, a pitcher of water, a pitcher of tea, and a pitcher of pumpkin juice.

Pansy, still mad that Draco had ruined her doll, shoved him into a door frame on their way in while their parents weren't looking.

"Ugly." Draco muttered under his breath to Pansy as he passed her to sit next to his mother and father.

"You two should be nice to each other." Pansy's mother, Rose, scolded as she picked up a sandwich.

"Yes, if you two are already fighting this early what will happen when you get married?" Narcissa joked after taking a sip of her vanilla tea.

Draco scoffed, "me? Marry _her_? That will never ever happen! I will marry her when there is a Weasly as minister." Had Hermione been listening, she might have gone into a fit of crying again thinking about her family. However, she focused on her food rather than the conversation, and thus simply continued to eat silently. Tom, however, found the boy's words threatening his mate's emotional well being, and sent a deathly growl towards the boy. All the adult Death Eaters at the table looked scared for the boy. They all knew that messing with a veela's mate could easily lead to death. Draco, however, was young, and was unaware of this. He thought what he said about the Weasly family was completely justified, so he was surprised when he heard the deadly growl coming from The Dark Lord.

"Draco!" Narcissa hissed at her child as her eyes flickered from nervously looking at The Dark Lord to harshly glaring at her son. She only hoped that by scolding Draco, The Dark Lord would not hurt her son.

Pansy, who was not at all aware of the seriousness of the situation, heard the silence and decided to take advantage of it by blurting out, "someday, Draco, you'll worship me like the goddess I am."

Tom sighed. All this bickering made annoyed him, and he was getting rather tired. He couldn't wait to get home and spend some relaxation time with his mate. _If only the afternoon could end now…_


	6. Chapter 6

_A boy sat crying quietly on one of the many bunk beds that lied against the cracked, grey walls of the orphanage bedroom. To the boy, the room was dark and gloomy, especially this late at night. He desperately needed someone – anyone really – to comfort him in his misery. He had had a nightmare again, and wanted so badly to have someone hug him and offer comforting words to him until the memory of the nightmare went away. He didn't dare call the other children, lest he be subject to their cruelty. The women there could not be bothered either, as they had other things to attend to. Their first priority had to be the babies and that meant that for the older children that they got less attention. Tom never blamed the women; they were nice at least, even if they could never help you. _

_There was one girl, however, who would always come to the boy's aid. Lucy had come to the orphanage at the age of one month, and was still there at the age of ten. Even though her life was not perfect she did her best to be kind to every body._

_Lucy heard the quiet sobbing and immediately ran to the bottom bunk. "Tom, what's wrong?" Lucy asked the boy who had stopped sobbing and started to sniffle._

_"I miss my mum." Tom admitted quietly to the girl who was smiling sympathetically at him._

"_It's alright, we all miss our mums sometimes." She said empatheticlly. "C'mon, lay down and go to sleep, and it'll be better in the morning." She gently pushed him down before tucking him in. She said a quick "Goodnight Tommy." And walked back to her bed on the other side of the room._

"_Get up, idiot!" shouted someone in his ear as Tom was ruthlessly thrown out of bed, slamming his entire body on the hard concrete floor. _

_Tom looked up to see his attacker – Edwin. Edwin was the meanest, cruelest boy in the whole orphanage, and picked on Tom as often as he could. He was also the leader of his "gang," which consisted of most of the orphanage boys. _

"_I heard you crying last night, little baby. 'Waaaa! Waaa! I want my mommy." Edwin mocked, as the other boys surrounded Tom. "Tommy wants his mommy, Tommy wants his mommy, Tommy wants his mommy…"_

_Soon all the boys were chanting, "Tommy wants his mommy! Tommy wants his mommy, Tommy wants his mommy…"_

"_Please, stop." whimpered Tom, desperately trying to get up. _

_Suddenly, there was dead silence. "I think this little shit is trying to tell us what to do." Edwin let out a humorless, cold laugh. "Well boys," he said more loudly, so the other boys could hear, "we know what happens to little shits who try to tell us what to do, don't we?"_

_The other boys just smirked evilly. One of them kicked Tom straight in the stomach, causing him to double over. Two other boys then grabbed his arms and dragged him across the hard floor, completely ignoring his frightened protests. _

"_PLEASE, NO. NOT AGAIN! I'LL DO ANYTHING YOU WANT, JUST DON'T TAKE ME IN THERE!"_

_They didn't listen though as they roughly shoved him into the closet, kicked him twice for good measure, and left him there, locking the closet from the outside._

_Tom hobbled to his feet and looked outside the tiny closet window. "Please, don't" he said one last time, begging with all he had not to leave him there. Edwin just turned back and smirked coldly at Tom, turning the light off and leaving him once again in the cold, terrifying darkness._

An older version of Tom shot up in his bed, his chest heaving and his eyes dilated with fear. He jumped from the bed, knowing exactly where to go to relieve his fear. He threw on his pajama bottoms and a shirt before barraling out of his room. He shoved the people patrolling the hallway out of the way until he got to the door to his mate's bedroom. Quickly and quietly he slipped into the room where his young mate slept. He took a few minuets to look at her and the room.

It was so huge; you could probably fit an entire apartment into it. It the walls, the carpet, and the furniture were all various shades of pink. She had everything Tom had thought of that a little girl might want – dolls, shoes, clothes, and every kind of magical toy imaginable. Tom ignored all this though, as he only noticed his little beauty lying in the queen-sized pink bed in the middle of the room. He got into bed with his angel, taking deep breaths of her wonderful scent, immediately calming him down. She grumbled a little and shifted before falling back into a deep sleep.

He held her for comfort, like a child would a stuffed animal or a security blanket. Right now, though he would love to hear her voice or see her beautiful brown eyes, he let her sleep, content in knowing he was safe, she was safe, and that she would never EVER be taunted by anyone, lest they wanted to suffer the consequences.

"Tommy?" a small voice moaned tiredly, brining him out of his thoughts.

"Yes, love, I'm here. Now go back to sleep little one, we have a long day tomorrow."

Hermione shrugged and went to sleep again, despite her brain now being filled with questions about where they were going. Tom fell asleep shortly after, being no longer plagued by nightmares and only dreams of his and Hermione's future ahead.

* * *

"Why are going to the Malfoy's?" Hermione asked looking up from the book she was reading with Tom. Tom decided to go by carriage to allow Hermione to see the beautiful scenery on the way to the Malfoy's from Tom's safe house in the forest.

"Because, love, we have things to arrange." Tom answered as he ran a hand through Hermione's hair, careful not to mess up the pink ribbon in her hair. The eves had dressed her in pink dress with a pink ribbon in her hair with frilly socks and Mary Jane shoes, Tom had to admit the elves did a magnificent job, making her look stunning, as he had told her before they left.

"But what are we arranging?" she asked for the third time that day.

"Don't worry about it darling, let's just keep reading." He dodged.

After about twenty more minuets of reading _The Princess and the Frog,_ they pulled into the front of the manor. Elves opened the door for Tom, who picked Hermione up from the carriage and walked inside.

The Malfoys were already at the door, ready to greet them. Actually Draco had been ready since last night. When he found out that Hermione was coming over to play, he had run upstairs from the dinner table, got dressed in his best robes, stole some of his father's cologne, and stood at the door. It was only eight at night and Hermione would not be coming until noon. His parent, assuming he was just being extra prepared for the dark lord, told him that he could look even better if he went to sleep before they came. He fell asleep as soon as his check hit the pillow, but at five in the morning Draco was already getting ready. When his parents had come down stairs for breakfast they found him waiting in front of the staircase, facing the door. The elder Malfoys soon joined their son, and waited anxiously, if not a little fearfully, for their Dark Lord's arrival.

"Draco, why don't you take Hermione to the garden to play?" Narcissa offered as Tom and Lucius started talking. The little boy nodded with a huge smile, and lead her to the garden. At first, he tried to take Hermione's hand, but immediately dropped when his parents, fearful for their son's life, almost yelled at him to drop her hand. Before things could get ugly Draco, followed by Hermione, dashed into the garden.

"Hermione wanna ride brooms with me?" Draco asked, looking at his shoes, fairies dancing in his stomach.

"I've never ridden one before." Hermione admitted, and looked curiously over to the closet where they were obviously held. Though she had grown up in a wizarding house, Molly had never allowed her to ride a broom because of how small she was. The over protective ginger had a strict rule that no child of hers could ride a broom before the age of 10.

"I can teach you." Draco offered with a shy smile.

"Okay, then." Hermione said, her eyes brightening at the opportunity to learn something new.

Draco led Hermione over to where they kept the brooms and took one out for each of them. He handed one of the best ones to Hermione before leading her to a place away from anything she could hit. "First you straddle it." She wrapped her legs around the end, feeling a bit awkward with the large broom. "Good! Now kick off the ground," She tried to push against the ground, but she had very little leg strength, thus making her flop to the ground. "Almost. Try pushing more back this time." Draco encouraged. She followed his instructions and soon felt herself being lifted off the ground. "There you go!" Draco praised happily when he saw Hermione two feet in the air. "Now to go higher, lift the end of the broom up, and to go down, lift the end of the broom down" Draco said as the young witch got her bearings on the broom.

Hermione was very scared of heights, and so was content to float about 5 feet off the broom and watch Draco show off. She just floated in one place while his did loops and other things that would give her a heart attack if she dared to try them. Things were going perfectly well for about thirty minutes, until Draco, who was doing a trick, didn't notice how close he was to Hermione, and banged into her. Since it was her first time on a broom, she fell backwards, her head headed straight for the hard ground, right as the grown ups came outside to check on them.

Although he could tell that the Malfoys were terrified of him during their discussion (as well they should be), Tom Riddle was satisfied with the progress they had made. Even though it had only been about 15 minutes, he already missed his mate terribly, and decided he needed to check on her and see how she was doing. He was just coming out the door when he saw what was simultaneously the most horrible and the most beautiful sight he'd ever seen – his mate falling almost gracefully towards the ground. In a millisecond, faster then he ever thought possible, he ran to where it looked like Hermione was falling and caught her just in time. After his relief wore off, Voldemort became furious.

"Hermione, I'm so sorry!" Draco said as he ran over to her after landing his broom.

"You stay away from her!" The Dark Lord thundered at the small boy.

"I just wanted to apologize." Draco whispered fearfully.

"How dare he even think of letting Hermione on a broom with out supervision? I should have you killed for this boy!" Voldemort growled.

"Tommy?" Whimpered the small girl in his arms.

"Hermione my love, are you ok? What has he done to you?" He asked, setting her on her feet and checking her thoroughly for injuries.

She just whimpered, frightened by the dark look that had taken over Tommy's face just minutes before.

Seeing that she had no injuries, he turned to the boy, eyes filled with fire. "You are once again lucky boy. My lovely mate is not harmed, so your life is spared. However, you are to go no where near my mate with out me in the room or with out my permission, do you understand me?" Tom growled. The young boy nodded and ran to his parents as Tom carried his mate towards the exit of the manor to apparate home.


End file.
